Rich Daly
About the Author
Rich Daly is senior editor, policy affairs with HFMA, based in Alabama. His healthcare policy and finance reporting experience includes staff writer positions with Modern Healthcare and Congressional Quarterly (both focused on healthcare regulatory and legislative developments); editor-in-chief of 340B Report (the only news outlet focused on daily policy, legal, and business developments in the 340B program); and serving as a content director for Sg2/Vizient Inc (producing reports on financial pain points and solutions for health systems). He previously covered daily news for HFMA and wrote features for Healthcare Financial Management magazine, where his recognitions included the Stephen Barr Award (the only individual achievement award) from the American Society of Business Publication Editors.
Latest Work
Next reconciliation bill to target healthcare
Congressional leaders said they plan to target healthcare spending as part of a new budget reconciliation bill that could be enacted by July. The chairmen of both the Senate and House budget committees said in recent weeks that they will start crafting the instructions for a new reconciliation bill, according to Congressional Quarterly reporting (subscription…
Federal scrutiny of contracting continues
A new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) task force will include healthcare contracting among its priorities, according to attorneys. The FTC Healthcare Task Force was announced in March to coordinate existing healthcare enforcement and advocacy efforts across the agency. “Consolidation and anticompetitive conduct have distorted the economic landscape in many healthcare markets,” Andrew Ferguson, chairman of…
FastFinance: Hospital non-patient revenue; ACA plan changes
HFMA’s FastFinance newsletter is now a podcast. Host Rich Daly discusses the most current and relevant healthcare news, delivered in an easily digestible format. Most hospital revenue is from non-patient-care sources, according to a new analysis. The shares of patient-care revenue vary widely by hospital type. Also, this week’s Weird Number: 40%. That’s the increase…
Hospitals object to ACA marketplace changes
Proposed changes to the rules of the ACA marketplaces will shift more costs onto hospitals, industry advocates told CMS. The comments came in response to a proposed rule for 2027 marketplace plans that aimed to stabilize enrollment from 2026 to 2027. “Hospitals are often the providers of last resort for many patients, and policies that…
Rural hospitals seeing signs of financial hope
After years of struggling with financially precarious positions, rural hospitals saw their overall finances begin to improve in 2025. Both individual hospital strategies and external payment changes could determine whether that trend continues. The finding of overall improvement in rural hospital finances nationwide came from Chartis in its annual report tracking their finances.a From 2023…
Most hospital revenue is not from patient care
Hospitals derive only about one-third of revenue from patient care as low public payer rates and other factors have driven them to find other income sources, according to a new analysis. Net patient revenue was a median of 29.9% of gross revenue across nonfederal short-term acute care hospitals in 2024, according to an analysis by…
Despite delays, hospitals optimistic on SDPs
Although at least one state has waited nine months for CMS approval of its state-directed payment (SDP) plan, hospital executives said the approval process continues to churn. So far this year, CMS has approved $26.2 billion in hospital-focused SDPs, according to a FastFinance count of the list of approved SDPs. That amount includes both the…
States weigh hospital price caps
Several states are weighing legislation this year to impose various types of price caps on hospitals. The new legislation followed three states that enacted hospital price caps in 2025. Maine A price cap push in Maine appeared to stumble in recent days after legislation requiring price caps on hospital services was amended. The bill (LD…
FastFinance: Hospital building surge; AI-coding study pushback
HFMA’s FastFinance newsletter is now a podcast. Host Rich Daly discusses the most current and relevant healthcare news, delivered in an easily digestible format. Health systems will spend a record amount this year building new hospitals, with hospital and clinic construction budgets far outpacing outpatient facilities, like ASCs. Also, this week’s Weird Number: 39%. That’s…
Payer study: AI coding drives a multibillion-dollar spending increase
After years of allegations by payers that the increasing hospital adoption of AI-driven billing is increasing costs, the industry has produced the first research that allegedly quantifies it. Hospitals’ AI-enabled coding capabilities drove $2.3 billion in increased spending in a recent three-year period, according to new research from Blue Health Intelligence, a data analytics partner…